After years of flat demand, peak electricity demand is forecast to rise by 2.5 per cent as compared with last winter.

Surging demand for electricity , anticipated for the last several years, will arrive this winter and could strain the continent’s power grid during cold snaps, severe storms and other extreme conditions, according to a forecast from the North American Electric Reliability Corp.

The NERC, a regulator that’s responsible for improving reliability of the continent’s power grid, concluded in its latest seasonal reliability outlook (covering December through February) that after years of flat electricity demand, peak demand is forecast to rise by 20 gigawatts as compared with last winter – a 2.5-per-cent increase. Increases are particularly large in areas where data centres

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